Maintenance provisions: delimitation and tips

Above all, small companies often do not have the necessary experience in provisions for failure to maintain maintenance.What are the different requirements for the formation of maintenance provisions?Practical tips and practical examples make the topic clear.

In addition to sufficient knowledge of the facts and reasonable preparation.The legal basis for the provision for failed maintenance is § 249 HGB ABS.1 s.2 No..1.The content of the provision must be interpreted, the amount of the provision must be calculated correctly.To do this, it is necessary to know the effects of education and to deal with the processes in the tax audit, insofar as the correctness of the calculations from accounting is questioned.

Practical note: Duty to form the provision

The formation of the provision for failed maintenance is not a right to vote.The accountant must form this passive position in the balance sheet.However, there are interpretation options for content and height that must be documented accordingly.

§ 249 HGB stipulates that provisions must be formed for uncertain liabilities and for impending losses from floating business.In addition, it is expressly pointed out to the formation of provisions for "expenses for maintenance that is not made in the financial year, which will be made up in the following financial year within three months".This obligation to form the provision for failed maintenance applies to both the commercial and tax balance sheet.

Interior obligation and external obligation

Only the maintenance effort that arises from the internal obligation.If the company has the obligation to maintain maintenance compared to third parties, it is booked as a provision for uncertain liabilities.In this case, the provision that maintenance must be made up for in the first three months does not.

Examples of such external obligations are

Neben der Rückstellung für unterlassene Instandhaltung gibt es nur noch eine zweite Aufwandsart, die als Aufwandsrückstellung im Innenverhältnis nach §149 Abs.1 Nr.1 gebildet werden muss: Aufwendungen für die Abraumbeseitigungen. Weitere Aufwandsrückstellungen sind nicht erlaubt (§149 Abs.2 HGB).

Delimitation of maintenance effort to maintenance and maintenance effort

The provision is formed only for maintenance effort.To differentiate from this must be the effort for regular maintenance and maintenance work.These must not be booked in the provision.This means that the displaced inspection of the truck falls out of the calculation as well as the revision of the manufacturing system that is due according to the course.Maintenance work that is unregistered, the Z.B.Depending on the burden, however, the measures that must be taken into account in the provision are.The amounts that must be activated from maintenance also do not belong to the provision.Extensive conservation measures and value -increasing maintenance must be activated.It is therefore not a question of costs, a provision must not be formed for these amounts.

Practice tip: Documentation as prevention for audit

Some time after the measure has been completed, it is no longer fully understandable why an activation has taken place or did not take place.It is all the more difficult to recognize and argue this limit in the provision.Detailed documentation is necessary in order to be able to argue properly during a later audit.

Prerequisite: Maintenance actually necessary in the financial year

Another prerequisite for the provision is the requirement that maintenance in the financial year has become necessary and should have been carried out even then.The shift takes place for various reasons that are mostly technical or organizational in nature.

Practical examples maintenance provisions

Disputed points: catch-up, three-month period and resolution

It is disputed whether a maintenance that arose before the start of the financial year may be taken into account in the provision for the financial year.According to the prevailing opinion, there should be a ban on catching up.The situation is different if the measure has already started in the financial year but has not yet been completed.Costs that have already arisen are booked normally.Costs for the part of the work that have not yet been carried out belong in the provision.

Basically, it should not be difficult to find an organizational reason for postponement of a repair.There are hardly any discussions with the auditor.

Three-month period for a period between the development of the necessity and the end of the year

There is no regulation for the period between the development of the maintenance need and the end of the year.Nevertheless, it is difficult to justify if maintenance is necessary in January, but is not yet done in December.This leads to discussions with the auditor.

An important period is the time to make up for maintenance in the new year.Here it is important to adhere to a period of three months.If it is foreseeable from the outset that the repair of the vehicle, the building or the machine is not completed by the end of the third month, then the corresponding maintenance must not be taken into account.This period is used very precisely by the entrepreneurs.

Dissolution of the provision in the event of a loss of the reason

According to HGB, provisions may only be dissolved if the reason for the provision no longer exists.

When provision for failure to maintain this, this is the case if

If the maintenance is only done after the end of the three-month period, the provision has been calculated incorrectly and must be corrected.If the balance is only submitted with the tax return after the deadline, then the tax authorities assume that an already corrected balance.This reduced the provision for failure to maintain the measures that could not be completed on time contrary to the first planning.

Practical tip: Recommended correct documentation

The correct end of the measure or a delay beyond the permissible date must be documented correctly.This includes z.B.The final calculations of the companies that have carried out the measure.